


Welcome To My Cage

by Dikhotomia



Series: Whumptober 2k19: FE3H Edition [26]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Day 26 Abandoned, Gen, Heavy Angst, a 'what if edelgard didn't escape the holy tomb' scenario, we're back to pain I hope you enjoyed the fluffier break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 02:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21190298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: "I want Edelgard alive!" Rhea yells over the noise, the familiar soft cadence of her voice warped in favor of something loud and grinding. "Kill the rest!"Her soldiers stiffen but don't move, glaring down the knights. She knows they won't move, knows that all of them will be dead before a hand is laid on her. "Run," she says, low, hand gripping her axe until her glove creaks and her fingers ache. "There is no need for any more of you to die." No one moves."OREdelgard fails.





	Welcome To My Cage

Hubert is dead and it takes her too long to realize it, staring down at his prone form and the blood pooling around him. Hoping. Hoping that it was all just a very bad dream or some kind of poorly timed joke on his part. "Hubert," she whispers, her voice lost under the din of chaos around her. "This isn't funny..."

Hubert is dead and she's surrounded, knights spilling in from the hallway and forcing her own soldiers back. A flood of white and red and her in the center, caught on all sides. Her soldiers press in close, keeping a human wall between her and the ones who wish to harm her, spears and swords and shields held aloft and ready.

"I want Edelgard alive!" Rhea yells over the noise, the familiar soft cadence of her voice warped in favor of something loud and grinding. "Kill the rest!" 

Her soldiers stiffen but don't move, glaring down the knights. She knows they won't move, knows that all of them will be dead before a hand is laid on her. "Run," she says, low, hand gripping her axe until her glove creaks and her fingers ache. "There is no need for any more of you to die." No one moves.

_How? How? How? What went wrong?_

She sees the Professor as the knights shift and the look of horror and hurt on the older woman's face is a worse cut than anything any of the knights could do to her. She expected it, she expected it but it still digs at her like a blade slipped under the ribs and up towards the heart.

_Gutted_. She thinks, detached, _I feel gutted._

All hell breaks loose.

She comes out of her mind to hands pushing her, a soldier begging her to run. "I can't," she sputters, reaching out to grab a forearm, shaking her head over and over. "I won't leave all of you to die while I run like a coward." The soldier pushes again, and she remembers his name, all of their names. Each face hidden under the visor of their helmets. 

"Please, your majesty," he repeats. "You must, if you don't then everything we've worked for will be in vain. All of us came here with the hopes of your new world, and if we have to die to help you achieve it, we accepted that too."

_This wasn't how this was supposed to go-_

Edelgard runs, spinning on her heel and fleeing through the path cleared for her. 

"Don't let her get away!"

"Guard the Emperor's back! Keep them here!"

_Thank you._

_I'm sorry._

She runs, stumbling and desperate, her axe clanging to the floor when she trips. She leaves it, she leaves it and doesn't stop again, pushing her body as fast as she was capable of moving. She feels like she abandoned them all, her men, her classmates, the Professor.

"Edelgard!"

Her teeth grit, head bowing with the surge of energy she puts towards pushing herself faster. Refusing to cast a look over her shoulder at the person she knows is following her. Of course Rhea would send the Professor to stop her, the one person she knew Edelgard would struggle against. She also couldn't run forever, and while she could lose herself in the mountains and hide until nightfall, it required her to get away from her pursuers.

But she doesn't get that far, Byleth's weight impacting her from behind and sending them both down, the professor's arms curled tight around her waist. Her hands snap out to cushion her fall as best they can, keeping her from slamming her face into the unforgiving stone beneath their feet and now their bodies. It's a bad spot to be in, front to the floor and no way to roll over. But she still struggles, swinging her elbow back and trying to force her feet underneath her.

"Let go!" She gasps, hearing the clatter of more approaching footsteps. "Capturing me isn't going to solve anything." She talks, twisting underneath the older woman and grunting when Byleth's shoulder presses hard and unforgiving between her own. "If you let them catch me there will be no stopping what's coming."

"Edelgard, please, stop this," Byleth replies, begging. "We can talk this out, I won't let any harm come to you I swear."

The laugh she lets out is like glass breaking, turning her head to glare over her shoulder. "_Talk?_ I don't have time to-" the rest of her words are left to die slow and unspoken as Rhea steps into view with the remaining knights and the rest of the class. You've been abandoned, rings hollow in the back of her mind.

Hubert is dead, her soldiers are dead, and she has no way of knowing if Thales would bother rescuing her when all of Adrestia would fall under his control. "You've made a terrible mistake," she whispers, the fight draining out of her. She doesn't struggle when Byleth pulls her up to her feet, or when the knights restrain her.

"I expected better from you," Rhea seethes. "You will be punished for this trespass."

"And by doing so you will doom Fódlan to more suffering," Edelgard spits back, glaring in the face of a woman who could easily order her death right where they all stand. 

Something impacts with the side of her head and the world goes black.

\-----

She wakes in the dark, staring up into the shadows. It's silent save for the breath in her lungs and the quickening pound of her pulse. 

_She's a child again, standing alone in a cell. A chain around her ankle keeping her from running when the guards come in. So she hides, she hides and makes them find her. Everyone else died and left her. She can't blame them for abandoning her...she can't--_

Tears trace hot tracks down her cheeks despite her struggle not to cry, chest heaving under the twisting press of anxiety. She's in a cell again, stuck in a room she can't leave, unable to go outside or leave when she wants to. Her freedom, gone because of her own oversight. Did someone betray her? Or did one of the knights find out? Were they not careful enough?

Edelgard presses herself into a corner and sobs, curling herself into a ball. Knees up, face pressed to them, arms curled over her head to protect herself. 

She doesn't hope someone will save her.

**Author's Note:**

> Before anyone yells at me, there is a second part to this. I promise.


End file.
